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So important is the separation of church and state, our Founders made it the first freedom. Daniel Nardini explains why.

From an invitation from a former neighbor of ours, my wife Jade was invited to attend their local church. Ever since my wife came from South Korea to be with me, I had encouraged her to find a church that would accept her. She became a Christian in South Korea when she was a college student and wanted to carry on her faith here in America.

Jade was very excited to meet new people and find fulfillment dealing with people of the same faith. She wanted to go on picnics, attend special events, and get to know the other churchgoers and how they live. I had hoped that this would be a new beginning for my wife, and that she would get to know something more about America.

At first, things went pretty well. Every Sunday, my wife went to church service early in the morning, and she sang in choir and listened to lectures. She was invited to luncheons and talked with all the other ladies at informal get-togethers. Every day, she would read her Bible, and study the stories in the Old and New Testaments.

Sometimes she would be invited on field trips, but she had to decline most of these because she had to work. Jade felt kind of bad about this, but necessity dictated that both of us had to work because we needed the money. However, Jade tried to make up for not being able to go on field trips by going to additional church services on Wednesday. In her mind, she wanted to be a good Christian, and be good to these people.

One embarrassing question she was continually asked was why I did not attend church service with her? She one day explained that I am a Buddhist, and this is my faith.

Years before, I had converted to Buddhism due to the incredible kindness I had received from a Taiwanese farm family who took care of me for almost four years when I lived in Taiwan. Also, I had a very close ethnic Chinese friend in South Korea named Mr. Wang. Next to my wife, he was my best friend in South Korea, and he was an ardent Buddhist. They never asked me to convert, but in honor for all they did for me, I converted to the faith of Lord Buddha.

Apparently, this was not acceptable to the church my wife was going to, and they kept asking her why her husband did not convert to the faith of "country and God's will."

It just went downhill from there. On the few occasions I attended special gatherings with these people as a favor to my wife, they argued with me about everything. It was at first on why my faith was wrong, and then about evolution, and then about how home schooling was better than public schools. They told me that I should convert to their faith or I would no longer be invited to any of their events.

Obviously, I no longer went to their events afterwards.

My wife, being Korean, really had no idea for the most part what was happening. But then they told her that to "remain a good Christian," she should think about leaving me. When she refused, they kicked her out of the church.

Not long after that, the neighbor who had recommended that my wife join their church was also kicked out. That neighbor was so broken up about it that they moved out of the area. I know my wife cried for days because of it, but I told her that this was an extreme group of people, and she was better off without them. I told her there was nothing wrong with her faith, but that there were certain people who were using faith as a weapon of control, a means to achieve an end.

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Sadly, all of the other churches in our area of rural Illinois are the same. They want their membership to follow everything the church leaders set, and this includes political extreme goals.

My wife was kicked out of the church just before the rise of Donald Trump and the populist movement that went with him. We both saw the political extremism coming out of the whole four years Trump was president in our local area. This included anti-immigrant sentiment (yes, this made my wife uncomfortable), anti-Democratic Party signs alleging that all Democrats are Antifa and Communists, and that the 2020 election was "stolen."

Personally, I am not a fan of the Democratic Party either, but I accept the 2020 election was free and fair, and that all who live in this country, whether immigrant or native-born, have a right to make a life for themselves in this great and wonderful land.

Despite all that has happened to us, we are still here. We have no money to go anywhere else, and personally I do not want to go anywhere else even if we did have the money to move. I was born and raised in this state, and I will most likely die here. I just hope from old age. We get along with our neighbors and do what we can to help them as they also help us.

However, the differences in our faith still in one way separates us. There is still that invisible wall between us that I can never cross. Why should I? After all, am I not entitled under the U.S. and even Illinois constitutions to be able to keep and practice my faith as I so wish?

But unfortunately, almost all of everyone in the local area we live in do not understand nor care for religious diversity. There are only Christian churches and nothing else in the county we live in. There is a small group of Jews in a large industrial city called Sterling, Illinois, and Muslims in both Dixon, Illinois, and Morrison, Illinois, in the next county, but that is all. And no, no Buddhists.

As for myself and my wife, I am still a Buddhist and my wife still reads and recites from her Bible. She is still a Christian even if she does not belong to any church. We hope someday people where we live will be more enlightened about the incredible religious, ethnic and racial diversity of this great and beautiful country of ours. I told my wife that we are an American household. And in such a household from the many comes one.

Daniel Nardini was a newspaper correspondent for both Lawndale News in Cicero, Illinois, and The Fulton Journal in Fulton, Illinois. he is now retired and living in Chadwick, Illinois with his wife Jade.

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The Modern Whig Institute is a 501(c)(3) civic research and education foundation dedicated to the fundamental American principles of representative government, ordered liberty, capitalism, due process and the rule of law.

Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or its members.